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“And then Jimmy Darkside bet me like, nine carbons that I wouldn’t kiss him and yeah, he’s desperate and kinda rusty, but hey, carbons’re carbons.”
Ghoul froze, ears perking up as across the diner, Jet relayed the events of the evening prior to Cherri Cola.
“Witch, Jet, pretty sure the guy’s got nine kinds of sandrash, not to mention smelling like a day-old drac carcass.”
They dissolved into giggles, rocking back and forth as Cherri presumably shook his head. Ghoul wasn’t looking up to clarify, knew that if he started moving he wouldn’t be able to stop.
“So, did you do it?” Cherri asked eagerly.
There was a clinking sound and Cherri swore. Over his wiring, Ghoul closed his eyes, counted to seventeen, then opened them again.
As casually as he could, he stood, gathering up his project and half-facing the other ‘joys as he excused himself, “Gonna go work in the garage.”
Jet smiled, Ghoul tried to ignore the twist in his chest that the sight caused. “We bein’ too loud? Sorry, Ghoulie, we can be quieter.”
“Nah. I left my…” Ghoul cast around for a tool that he could conceivably need for the bomb he was working on. “Converter. Gotta get this done before Pois leaves anyway, so…”
Cherri and Jet had already turned back to each other by the time Ghoul finished stumbling over his words and left the diner. He pressed his back to the wall of the diner as soon as he was out of sight and tried not to scream.
Ghoul stayed in the garage the rest of the day, finishing his bomb and then organizing and reorganizing all of his, Kobra’s, and Jet’s tools. He even unearthed a bit of wax from somewhere and polished the Trans Am. Finally, after the sun had long set and the night chill starting creeping into Ghoul’s bones, he knew he had no excuse to stay out any longer.
Kobra and Cherri were curled up on the couch together, whispering and giggling and pushing at each other, but detangled themselves enough to welcome Ghoul inside.
“Who’s with the Girl?” asked Ghoul.
“Pois,” Kobra rubbed the side of his neck as he spoke.
“Shiny,” muttered Ghoul. “Night.”
“Night,” echoed the two lovebirds. They barely waited for Ghoul to leave the dining room before resuming their necking, right in the main room where anyone could see it. Like they had nothing to hide.
They didn’t, really, but Ghoul was bitter this night.
His bitterness intensified when he pushed open the bedroom door and, of course, there was Jet, lying on the bed and reading by the dim lamplight. Ghoul almost debated backing out and crawling into bed with Pois and the Girl, but then Jet would wonder why he hadn’t wanted to share a bed with them and he’d have to explain the creeping jealousy building at the bottom of his stomach and he knew that they hadn’t put a label on anything but he’d at least thought that maybe Jet thought that what they were doing was something other than just a way to burn off energy and apparently he was wrong and now all of his skin itched as he climbed into the sheets with them.
“Hey,” Jet welcomed him instantly. They lifted an arm, obviously expecting Ghoul to curl under it, and of course, he did, the sucker. “You were busy today.”
Noncommittally, Ghoul hummed.
“What was so important in the garage?”
“Stuff.”
“Stuff,” repeated Jet, a hint of amusement sliding into their tone.
“Just stuff.”
“Such as?”
Ghoul knew why they were prompting him, knew he was acting weird, knew that it was so normal for them to stay up to the early hours when they shared a bed, talking and laughing and, more recently, at least kissing. But he didn’t feel like it knowing that Jet had kissed someone else. Jimmy Darkside of all people! Jet themself had admitted he was rusty, but they kissed him like kissing Ghoul meant nothing.
Maybe it did.
“I already said, just stuff. Fuck! Doesn’t matter. G’night.”
Ghoul turned to hide his face in the most convenient place, which turned out to be Jet’s chest. They hummed and slid a hand up to the back of Ghoul’s neck.
“You’re being an asshole tonight.”
“I’m an asshole all the time,” Ghoul's voice was muffled.
“You sure like to think so.”
Slowly, Jet carded through Ghoul’s hair. Against his will, he relaxed, eyes slipping shut and some residual anger fading away.
Jet shifted to press a kiss to the top of Ghoul’s head, murmuring, “Guess you wanna just sleep?” as they pulled back.
Another hot wave of jealousy rushed over Ghoul. He didn’t want to 'just sleep' but he wanted to be the only person that Jet didn’t-sleep with and now he was reaping the rewards of having never said that.
“I don’t want you kissing other people,” blurted Ghoul.
Jet froze. “Oh.”
“Or… I don’t know. I don’t want you kissing Jimmy Darkside. Or I wanna know that you’re kissing other people or I want you t’ tell me so I don’t have to overhear it while you gossip with Cherri but I really just don’ want you kissing other people.”
“Oh.”
Ghoul held his breath.
“You didn’t say anything.”
Now it was shame, not just jealousy, prickling at Ghoul’s ears.
“I’m saying now,” he mumbled.
Jet tugged one of his braids lightly and Ghoul lifted his head.
“I’ll stop kissing other people.”
All Ghoul’s breath left him in a rush.
“If,” Jet continued, “you kiss me when the sun’s up.”
Ghoul meant to reply, he really did. But sometime between breathing in to speak and actually starting the words he lunged up to press his lips to Jet’s. Hard. They made a surprised sound and a hand flew up to his shoulder but they didn’t push him away.
“I’ll kiss you when the sun’s up,” murmured Ghoul when he broke the kiss. “I’ll kiss you whenever. Fuck, baby, I’ll kiss you anytime you want.”
“Good,” Jet replied.
The next kiss was soft, but Jet’s hands were firm when they found Ghoul’s hips and he couldn’t hide a smile.